John Peter Zenger

John Peter Zenger was a printer in colonial New York during the early eighteenth century. He leveraged a colonial political scandal to prop up his struggling printing business and eventually emerged a successful proprietor of a print shop as well as publisher of the New-York Weekly Journal.

John Peter Zenger
(born 1697 in Rumbach, German Palatinate; died July 28, 1746 in New York City,
Province of New York) was a printer in colonial New York during the early
eighteenth century. He leveraged a colonial political scandal to prop up his
struggling printing business and eventually emerged a successful proprietor of
a print shop. As the publisher of the New-York Weekly Journal, the
colony’s first independent political newspaper, he was defended successfully against
a charge of libel, thereby securing a milestone victory for freedom of the
press in the American colonies. Although Zenger, an uneducated workman who had
no direct involvement in politics, was probably unaware of the significance of
his trial, he emerged as a kind of folk hero during the nineteenth century,
celebrated as a zealous defender of freedom of the press. His name and his
famous trial thus became synonymous with this basic American right.

Zenger’s origins are obscure. He was born in the village of Rumbach in the German
Palatinate in 1697, the eldest of four children of Nicolaus Zenger, a
schoolmaster, and his wife, Johanna.
Sometime in late 1709, when John Peter was twelve, the Zenger family
joined the mass migration of Palatinates and other German-speakers to England,
with the intention of immigrating to North America.[1]

In April 1710 the
Zengers, including John and his two surviving siblings, sailed for New York
with a large contingent of other emigrants.[2] During the arduous voyage across the Atlantic, Zenger’s father
died. Zenger’s widowed mother Johanna,
together with her three children arrived in New York in June 1710.[3]
By prior arrangement, the governor of New York, Robert Hunter, had guaranteed
local apprenticeships for the children of Palatinate immigrants. On October 26,
1710, Hunter signed thirteen-year-old John Peter Zenger’s articles of
apprenticeship to William Bradford, the first and, at the time, only printer in
New York.[4]
The articles of indenture were ratified by Johanna Zenger early the following
year.

According to the
terms of the indenture John Peter Zenger was required to work for William
Bradford until his maturity. Bradford had originally operated a printing shop
in Philadelphia when he arrived in the colony in 1682, but his publications led
to a series of civil and religious conflicts with the Quaker leadership of
Pennsylvania, including a 1692 arrest and trial after he published a religious
pamphlet by George Keith that criticized mainstream Quaker religious practices.
These clashes with the local Quaker authorities convinced Bradford to leave
Philadelphia for New York in 1693.[5]
After he arrived in New York, the royal governor of the colony, Benjamin
Fletcher, appointed Bradford as the colony’s official printer. In this
capacity, he printed currency, books, legal documents, and other materials for
the colonial government. Additionally, he produced printed material for private
individuals on a contract basis. Working for Bradford, Zenger would have
learned the ins and outs of the printing trade and would have acquired valuable
and marketable experience by helping Bradford print the wide variety of
official and private materials that passed through his shop.

After eight years
as Bradford’s apprentice, Zenger left the shop in 1719. On July 28 of that year
he married Mary White in Philadelphia. The couple moved to the wealthy Chesapeake
Bay port settlement of Chestertown, on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, perhaps in the
hope that Zenger could emulate his former master’s success by becoming the
official printer of government documents for the Maryland colony. Zenger had
little competition at the time, since the printing trade demanded years of
training and a large capital outlay for equipment and supplies. It is not clear
how Zenger acquired his printing equipment. He may have received some money
from Bradford at the end of his apprenticeships, his wife may have had a dowry,
or he may have received money through her family. Despite a lack of competition
in Maryland, there was limited demand for his printing services even though the
colonial government, headquartered in nearby Annapolis, depended on
Philadelphia-based printers to produce all official Maryland government
publications.[6]

Records show that
Zenger was given 500 pounds of tobacco in 1720, a small amount of remuneration,
for a one-time contract, namely printing the “Laws of the Counties” of
Maryland.[7]
He was unable, however, to secure a permanent contract with the government,
which would have provided him with a steady source of income. While living in
Chestertown he became a naturalized citizen of the colony. A few years later,
following the death of his wife, he returned to New York to settle as a
freeman. Zenger married Anna Catherina Maulin on September 11, 1722. The couple
had numerous children, six of whom survived.

Zenger may have
worked as a printer in New York for several years after his return, possibly
for William Bradford, his former master. Zenger became a partner in Bradford’s
printing business in 1725, when Bradford founded the weekly New-York Gazette,
the first newspaper in the colony. Zenger left Bradford after a year-long
partnership to set up a rival print shop. The move was a bold decision since he
would have had to compete for business with Bradford, who had been designated
the King’s Printer by the British Crown and was in firm control of the New York
market. As in Maryland, Zenger struggled to attract customers at a time when
demand for printing was still relatively limited to official government
publications, religious materials, and the occasional secular work. By the end
of 1731 Zenger’s commissioned print jobs numbered only twenty-one compared with
Bradford’s fifty-four imprints in addition to the New-York Gazette. It
is unclear whether these twenty-one publications covered Zenger’s household
expenses or if he had some other source of income. Zenger’s commissioned prints
were mostly religious tracts, with one important exception. He made a notable
contribution to the history of printing in America by publishing, in Dutch, the
book Arithmetica, by Peter Venema, in 1730, which is considered the
first arithmetic text printed in New York.

In August 1732 a
new governor of the New York colony, William Cosby, was appointed by the
British Crown. From the outset, Cosby’s highhanded and often crude behavior
established him as an unpopular figure. When Cosby removed Chief Justice Lewis
Morris from office as a result of a conflict between Cosby and the former acting
governor, Rip Van Dam, many colonists were outraged. James Alexander, William
Smith Sr., and other prominent opponents of Cosby formed a new political
faction, the “Country Party,” in support of the ousted chief justice. Alexander
needed a printer to publish political tracts expressing the Country Party’s
views. He turned to Zenger, since Bradford was the official printer for the
colony and thus a Cosby supporter by definition. Thanks to the new business
that this political battle generated, Zenger edged ahead of Bradford as the
colony’s most prolific printer by the fall of 1733. In November of that year he
was given additional duties when Alexander founded a second newspaper in the
colony, the New-York Weekly Journal, to give opponents of Cosby a regular
outlet for their criticisms. Zenger became not only its printer but also its
editor of record. Alexander and his followers did the actual writing and
editing, but they observed political caution by listing only Zenger’s name on
the masthead. Some of the articles in the Journal were signed by Zenger,
but it is unclear whether he actually wrote them or covered for authors who
wanted to remain anonymous. Establishing
the Journal put Alexander and Zenger
directly at odds with William Bradford and his New-York Gazette, which supported Cosby as the legitimate authority
in the colony. Nevertheless, the business generated by the conflict likely
benefited Zenger’s bottom line after years of struggling against Bradford’s
domination of the printing market.

From the point of
view of Cosby and his supporters, the Journalwas a subversive,
inflammatory publication that threatened public order by calling for Cosby’s
downfall, and by making that claim against the paper, the Cosby faction
appeared to have the force of law on its side. After battling the Journalfor
more than a year, Cosby had Zenger arrested for seditious libel on November 17,
1734. Since Zenger could not raise bail — the considerable sum of six hundred
New York pounds — he spent nearly nine months in jail. It is unclear why
Alexander and Smith, who had substantial resources, did not come to the aid of
the man they had used as the mouthpiece for their political views. One
possibility, of course, is that Alexander and Smith wished for a trial to take
place, hoping that by securing a victory in a test case their support and
defense of freedom of the press would be upheld

While Zenger
remained in jail, his wife Anna oversaw the shop and continued publication of
the Journal. Zenger allegedly communicated instructions to Anna “through
the hole of the door of the prison.”[8]
In a pretrial hearing a grand jury refused to indict Zenger, but the Supreme Court
nevertheless agreed to hear the case based on the personal testimony of Richard
Bradley, attorney general of the colony and a supporter of Cosby. Zenger’s case
finally came to trial in the New York Supreme Court on August 4, 1735. Lawyer
Andrew Hamilton, a man of great eloquence, conducted Zenger’s defense. His
dramatic appeal, which rendered the law subordinate to personal freedom, won
over the jury, and Zenger was acquitted.

Soon after
Zenger’s acquittal and release from prison, a detailed account of his trial
appeared in the Journal. In 1736 the proceedings were published in a
separate, often reprinted pamphlet, A Brief Narrative of the Case and Tryal
of John Peter Zenger. James Alexander’s name appeared on the title page as
the author. It is unclear if Zenger profited in any way from the publication of
the pamphlet, as copying and reprinting material was common during this era.
Zenger emerged from his ordeal as a local hero who could capitalize on his fame
to advance his business. In 1737, a year after Governor Cosby died, Zenger was
appointed the public printer for New York, replacing Bradford, his former master,
partner, and business rival. Zenger must have been successful in the
performance of his provincial government contract because in 1738 the royal
governor of New Jersey appointed him to the same post in the neighboring
colony. Zenger also continued as publisher of the Journal, which
stabilized his financial situation for almost a decade.

John Peter Zenger
died in New York on July 28, 1746, and is believed to be buried in Trinity
Churchyard in Lower Manhattan.[9]
His widow continued the family business until Zenger’s eldest son, John,
replaced his mother as head of the print shop in December 1748. John Zenger
continued publication of the Journal for another three years.

Zenger’s name is
indelibly linked with his trial for libel, which historians such as George
Bancroft portrayed as critical to the establishment of freedom of the press.
Later historians such as Stanley Nider Katz depicted it as the culmination of a
battle of “a somewhat narrow-minded political faction seeking immediate political
gain rather than long-term governmental or legal reform.”[10]
Zenger’s impact as an immigrant entrepreneur is different: he used the
education and social capital, including familiarity with the English language, which
he acquired through his apprenticeship as a printer, and possibly some form of
financial assistance from his wife’s family, to set up a printing business in
Maryland. When success from that enterprise failed to materialize and his wife
passed away, he returned to New York where he first worked for, and then
partnered with, his former master until he had the means to establish his own
shop. It may well have been that he was used by politicians in their fight with
an unpopular governor, but he was also able to use the affiliation with the
Country Party to further his printing business and financial success. As
printer for the provincial governments of New York and New Jersey and as
publisher and editor of the Journal,he established and
maintained a business that supported his family and that flourished
sufficiently to enable first his widow and then his eldest son to succeed as
head of the printing operation.

[1] The 1709 mass migration of
Palatinate Germans to England was largely the result of promises made by agents
working on behalf of the Carolina Colony proprietors. These agents informed the
impoverished German Protestants of the Palatine that they would receive free
passage to the American colonies and free land if they migrated to England. The
arrival of thousands of “Pool Palatines” in England created a crisis for the
English government. Some were settled unsuccessfully in Ireland, while others
were sent to New York to produce naval stores for the Royal Navy. For more
information, see Phillip Otterness, Becoming
German: The 1709 Palatine Migration to New York (Ithaca: Cornel University
Press, 2004).

[2] Friedrich Kapp, Geschichte der
Deutschen im Staate New York (New York: E. Steiger, 1867), cited in Albert
Bernhardt Faust, The German Element in the United States, Vol. 1
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1909), 80-83. Information on the Zenger family is
also included in I. Daniel Rupp, A Collection of Upwards of Thirty Thousand
Names. . . . 1875; 2nd rev. and enl. ed. (Philadelphia: Leary,
Stuart, 1927), 444, 445. In addition, see Henry Z. Jones, Jr., The Palatine
Families of New York: A Study of the German Immigrants Who Arrived in Colonial
New York in 1710, Vol. 2 (Universal City, CA: self-published, 1985),
1123-1125, 1201-1202.

[3] Faust, 80-83. The exact dates of their departure and arrival are
unknown. In the early eighteenth century, the average length of a transatlantic
voyage was about nine weeks.

[4]Ibid. Under Hunter’s
auspices, more than six dozen children from the Palatinate, both male and
female and as young as three years of age, were apprenticed in various trades
between 1710 and 1714. According to Faust, op. cit., these mandatory
apprenticeships, often resulting in the separation of children from their
parents, caused a considerable amount of dissension among the émigrés.

[5]
John Smolenski, Friends and Strangers: The Making of a
Creole Culture in Colonial Pennsylvania (Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, 2010),149-177.

[9] Information regarding Zenger’s
burial is scarce. Available public information seems to point to a burial in an
unmarked grave at Trinity Church cemetery. See “John Peter Zenger,” (accessed October 15, 2012).

[10] James Alexander, A Brief
Narrative of the Case and Trial of John Peter Zenger, ed. and with an
introduction by Stanley Nider Katz, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Belknap
Press, 1972), 3-4.

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